Kerala: Murder convict who killed two while out on bail sentenced to death

Follow TNM's WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links. A court in Palakkad in Kerala on Wednesday, July 15, sentenced 61-year-old Chenthamara to death for committing a double murder in Pothundi near Nenmara in 2025, while being out on bail in another murder case.The Palakkad Additional District and Sessions Court-IV also imposed a fine of Rs 20 lakh on him and ordered that this amount be paid as compensation to the victims' family, reports said.According to reports, Judge Kenneth George, while pronouncing the sentence, held that the case falls under the ‘rarest of rare’ category. The court also observed that Chenthamara had shown no remorse for his actions and continued to justify the killings.He killed his neighbours, Sudhakaran (54) and his elderly mother, Lakshmi (75), on January 27 in 2025. The double murder took place while he was out on bail for murdering Sudhakaran’s wife, Sajitha, in 2019.According to the prosecution, after his wife and daughter left him, Chenthamara believed that Sudhakaran’s family was responsible for it.Chenthamara killed Sajitha, wife of Sudhakaran, after she supported Chenthamara’s wife when he was assaulting her.While pronouncing the sentence, the court noted that Chenthamara had committed the double murder while out on bail, demonstrating a continuing threat to society.On July 13, after the court convicted him in the 2025 double murder, Chenthamara challenged the judge to hang him, prompting tight security during his sentencing hearings.Chenthamara was released on bail in 2022 after three years in jail. He received a conditional bail which restricted him from entering the Nenmara police station limits. The bail condition was relaxed in 2023, which reduced the ban area to Nenmara panchayat limits. The accused had returned to his house in Sudhakaran’s neighbourhood two months, in violation of bail conditions, before he committed the double murder.In October 2025, Chenthamara was sentenced to double life imprisonment for the 2019 murder of Sudhakaran's wife, Sajitha.